I have been focused on hiring this week, as I’ve already discussed. I love the entire process, from writing the job posting to reviewing resumes to chatting with people on the phone. It’s a great way to meet people.
I read an interesting post on The “Top 7 Hiring Mistakes for Startup Businesses” which does a nice job of summing up the process; I’d recommend giving it a read. My only disagreement with the post is point # 4 which recommends against hiring generalist. This is dangerous advice. Start ups are full of ups and downs and there are times you must lay off staff to make ends meet. It is far from ideal, in fact it’s horrible, but it is a reality. I have seen this in every start up I have worked in (4 total) and we were fortunate to have these jack of all trades on the team. It made it possible to have people that would write code, design UI, and write help. It made it possible to have people producing marketing materials, making sales, and even answering the support lines. Would we have been better off with specialist? Yes… If we had the money. The generalist saved the day.
Since I’m on the subject of hiring, I wanted to share with you a few mistakes to avoid when it comes to the job application process. I have seen all of these this week:
- Applying for a job and not including your resume. I have received almost 40 applications through craigslist and 4 of them were sent without the resume attached. I will not e-mail you back.
- Sending an application e-mail without any attempt at writing a cover letter. Come on, make an effort and tell me why I should open your resume. If you don’t make the effort, I will not either. I received five e-mails with no message.
- Having typos in your resume. While not a deal breaker you are failing to make a good impression. Spell check please.
- Including the names of your references in the resume. While not a bad thing when I know that your middle school vice principal is one of your references I have to ask myself how successful you have been in the first few years of your career.
How is your hiring going?
John
October 20, 2009 at 12:53 pm
[...] and foremost it takes work. Sorry, there’s no easy answer. When it’s time to hire for your startup, you need to invest a significant amount of time on it. I’m speaking directly to [...]
August 9, 2009 at 12:01 pm
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August 7, 2009 at 6:15 pm
John, how do you feel about restricting resumes to one page? I also agree that the resumes should highlight accomplishments, not responsibilities. Goodtravel gives a great example.
August 10, 2009 at 11:19 pm
Great question Glenn. I think it’s important to highlight the accomplishments and if it takes more than 1 page so be it. What do you think Glenn?
August 7, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Great post John!
My biggest advice for users out there is more general.
SELL yourself! The most common resumes I see simply lists job duties and responsibilities.
Well, they always say “Make your resume stand out!”.
What does that mean? Think business! Why should the employer hire you? What makes you special? What have you done with those responsibilities specifically to make you stand out?
For example, I’ll see something like “Managed a team of 20 staff members to provide quality assurance and customer satisfaction.”
Change that to “Increased customer satisfaction scores by 20% by managing…..”
With each duty or responsibility listed, make yourself stand out by showing what you did above and beyond for it.
- Jeremy
http://goodtraveldesign.wordpress.com
August 7, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Fantastic advice Jeremy. You are right, sell yourself with real data.
John
August 7, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Including references in resume will make it longer (can be ignored for the sake of argument) and you also share contact information of your references with other person/company before you are not sure if that company and applicant are a fit to each other. I think references are always the second part in the hiring process once company has determined that you are a right match for the profile based on your interviews and you also get to know a little more about the company and culture with your interviews. I believe that they are relevant only when you have cleared your job interviews and both the parties is now ready to proceed with second stage and hence can safely be avoided to include in resume.